


Death Will Come (and save us all)

by Ourliazo



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: 18th Century, Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Circus Performer!Skull, Doctor!Reborn, Friendship, Gen, Mermaid!Kyouya, Mermaid!Tsuna, Noble!Byakuran, Smuggler!Mukuro, They're probably all going to die, lost at sea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2018-11-06 19:45:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 18,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11043045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ourliazo/pseuds/Ourliazo
Summary: Kyouya is a mermaid, Fon is a human, and the other people lost at sea with them are just plain unhelpful.





	1. Chapter 1

The ocean's surface roars and wind shrieks as the clouds overhead throw down rain and lightning like spears. The sole ship in the water for kilometres is thrown between the high, violent waves and with every second that passes it becomes more and more unstable, losing wooden planks and torn bits of sail.

The occupants of the magnificent looking ship stagger across the deck as the waters tilt the wooden structure almost vertical. They scream over the waves smashing onto the deck, all of them with a fierce determination to not be cowed by nature.

Deep below the waves, where the sudden flashes of lightning barely reach, lies a calm figure. He floats in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a dark blue stretch of absolutely nothing, listening to the faint sounds of violence above as the water rocks him gently from side to side.

He opens his eyes and blinks into the nothingness around him. He tilts his head, listening for that odd cracking noise again. When he does hear it he flicks his tail lazily and the strong limb propels him upwards through the water.

He catches sight of something strange a few moments later. There are huge chunks of wood and rope and odd structures diving into the water, strangely graceful for such cumbersome looking things.

He swims in an arc, staying away from the objects but moving closer to the surface still. Obviously it has something to do with humans, they're the only reason he can think of to explain the sudden appearance of … of whatever those things are.

They don't look like the large vessels that bob on the water, with tall limbs that stretch up and solid netting being blown by the wind. The humans use it to replace their weak little double tails because the water is too much for them.

He spies a rectangular structure far off to the side and with a flick of his tail he's darting around it in curiosity. He reaches forward fearlessly and grabs a round attachment, pulling it. The wood explodes open and suddenly he's trapped. He twists and pushes against the binding, his arms and tail becoming more restrained the harder he fights, the water making the material drag and tighten around him.

He grits his teeth and with a vicious swipe of his tail he bursts from captivity. He whips around and all the fight goes out of him. Large, puffy human shells float like jellyfish in the water, more items that are usually seen covering the humans bleed from the box slowly. He runs a hand down his face in embarrassment and quickly looks around.

No one saw him. Good.

He moves far away from the human shells and circles around what he tentatively labels as a broken human vessel. They can be found sometimes, just sitting on the ocean floor, hiding human things that sparkle in the sunlight.

The water's surface bends down under the weight of a large piece, bigger than the rest, and rises again to swallow the destroyed structure. Humans follow this time, small figures overshadowed by the mass of the vessel's wreckage.

They curl in on themselves and then blindly claw for the surface. One doesn't move at all, floating stationary and clutching their arm until one of their companions finds them and drags them upwards. A black human covering with an orange stripe is left behind, drifting from the human's head as it drags the injured one to the surface.

He scans the largest piece, moving downward more swiftly that the other wooden parts thanks to its weight. A human is there, almost hidden even to his eyes, near a large bit of solid off-white netting that's normally stretched over the human vessel.

He swims a bit closer, wondering why it's attached to the wreckage. Humans don't do that, do they? It's curled, its eyes open and hands working at the rope clinging to one of its odd tails. Red covering whips up around it from the speed the human is sinking.

No, he's pretty sure that humans don't like being that far down. They breathe above water, probably. Most of them do at least. He swims down, idly calculating the distance from the red one to the surface and average human speed underwater by measuring the other humans, most now at the surface.

Yeah, that human is going to die.

In that case, he can get closer. His tail beats against the water and he darts down, a slender blur against the blackness. He takes cover behind a jutting edge of the wooden vessel and peeks at the human, holding onto the structure so he could fall with it.

The human is barely bigger than he is, with white and red covering loose around its body, and a long trail of black hair. The covering flies up and he blinks at sleek, powerful muscles along the human's torso and arms, just plain flesh.

He looks down at his own abdomen and finds a dusting of scales. Human bodies are weird. He looks up again but it has turned away. He darts up and sneaks into the folds of the large and rough netting that clings to a tall piece of wood.

The human seems to be getting weaker, its struggles lessening and one hand moving to clamp over a mouth.

He wonders if he should eat it now while the human is still warm. He hasn't tried it before because they just don't look very tasty but now he's curious. Would they taste like tuna, or more like oyster?

The human finally lets go of the rope at the end of one of its tails and straightens, incredibly calm for someone who's going to die. It releases its mouth as well and stares into the nothingness of the ocean before slowly turning to take everything in.

His tail brushes the netting he's hidden behind and he moves closer unconsciously. "Death will come," he murmurs, more to himself than the human.

The human jolts and its head whips around.


	2. Chapter 2

It's not a bad way to go, Fon decides.

It takes momentous effort to uncurl his fingers from the coils of rope and chaotic knots binding him because every part of his body is screaming that he can make it, that he can push himself just a little bit harder and everything will be okay.

His brain disagrees, apathetically listing every reason that says Fon will die here, in this freezing cold nothingness where warmth is just a memory from a past life.

The rope around his ankle hurts, his skin broken long ago from the frantic desperation before. He's not calm, not by a long shot. Fon's chest hurts like a tonne was dropped onto him and the want for air is an all-consuming need, plus his eyes sting from the salt water and his mind is filled with concern for the other people on the ship.

And the realisation that he's dying doesn't help things.

His heartbeats, so loud, feel like they shake his entire body. Any moment now he'll just start screaming because he's so angry at himself for getting caught in some rope of all things. He's mastered over a hundred different styles of martial arts and a _fucking piece of rope_ takes him down.

He doesn't know how deep he is but even if the frustratingly thick binding breaks he won't make it to the surface before his body overrides his head and takes in a lungful of air. He gazes into black waters that stretch for what seems to be an eternity as he's pulled down, down, down.

Down.

d

o

w

n

A soft melody fills the water, a low and haunting tune that echoes strangely and drifts to a gentle end like a caress. It comes from everywhere at once and yet Fon is almost certain he's simply losing his mind.

He spins, trying to pinpoint the source of such a beautiful voice, and comes to a stop facing the ship's sail with jagged tears in it. He thinks he's imagining it when a glimmer of light shows in between the folds of the sail.

Then a creature slips forward and that glimmer of light turns into a soft glow, reflecting the minuscule amount of brightness from the surface. It's a man, with snow white skin, hair black like the abyss Fon is sinking into, and eyes like the richest silver with icy blue shards.

Pale grey scales make faint streaks like tiger stripes along the male's skin and grows to a midnight blue low on his hips. Right where the long fish tail starts.

Oh, okay, so Fon is now hallucinating from the lack of oxygen. Admittedly it's a gorgeous creature and while there's not a lot of muscle definition, there's something about the man that says he could tear you to pieces.

Truth be told, Fon would have liked a woman, without a tail, but more concerning is that the ethereal creature has Fon's face. Fon does not have time for this worrisome revelation about his subconscious, because he's dying, and imagining himself as a mermaid just adds to the violent panic in his head.

The same violent panic that comes to a screaming crescendo when his body finally just… gives up.

* * *

He blinks in shock when he sees the human's face, an identical copy to his own. That is rather fascinating, he thinks as he moves closer.

He makes up his mind just as the human opens its mouth, finally unable to hold its breath any longer. He darts forward, moving quickly because humans could be so fragile. He pinches its nose closed and holds the jaw to keep it still before sealing his lips over the human's.

He gulps down the water already inside and breathes out oxygen, forcefully inflating the human's lungs. It jerks to life and suddenly a hand is gripping his hair painfully tight and an arm wraps around his back, pressing him against the human and locking him in place as it gasps shaky, desperate breaths.

He flinches when the human holds him even tighter. Are all humans this strong? He's never interacted with them before, just observed from a distance. Either way, it just cements his decision further.

He will keep this human.

He tries to pull away gently and the human seems to have understood, taking a deep breath before pulling back and immediately curling down again to reach the coils of rope. It has determination in its eyes, as fierce as the storm raging above.

How very amusing.

He smirks and darts downwards, gliding past the rope with a gentle brush of his tail, leaving the knot wrapped around the human but breaking the length that connects him to the vessel. The binding snaps as the tiny jagged razors on his tail tear into it, and immediately the human is pushing off the vessel, moving quickly to the surface. It's too slow.

He bursts from the wooden structure with a lash of his tail and snatches the human's arm as he passes, cutting through the water so fast that the pressure weighs heavily against his shoulders. He grins widely with a mouthful of sharp teeth and goes even faster.

The human clings to his wrist hard enough that it's painful, digging in nails until he bleeds wisps of red, but that's just part of the fun.

Lightning sends streaks of brightness into the water like reaching fingers and the roar of thunder follows, loud even over the churning of waves.

He speeds up.


	3. Chapter 3

"He needs to stop!" Lal screams over the crashing of waves. She clings tighter to the piece of splintered wood as a large wave of freezing cold water crashes over her, her forearm gripped by a wide eyed Colonnello.

Reborn bursts from the water, gasping so desperately for air that it sounds painful. He barely takes a full breath before trying to dive under again. Verde lashes out and grabs the man's shirt, forcefully dragging him backwards to the large piece of floating wood.

"Let go!" Reborn snaps, twisting away from the hold. It's a testament to just how exhausted he is that he can't get away from the scientist.

A flash of lightning illuminates the others that were on the ship before it was smashed to pieces, all of them just faint shadows in the distance that cling to floating debris, bobbing in the large waves and going under before bursting back up.

"It's been fifteen minutes, you need to stop!" Verde snarls over a thunder clap, struggling to keep his hold on Reborn.

"He's held his breath for longer, Verde!" Reborn gives a violent jerk and the scientist loses his grip.

But before Reborn can dive under, Colonnello pushes off from the wood he's gripping and snags the man around his waist, slamming him back against the driftwood Verde is attached to and pinning Reborn with his own body.

"Did you see him?" Colonnello barks. "Reborn,  _did you see him down there_?"

They all know the answer is a negative.

Reborn slumps into the man because he knows he's exhausted, tired from before the ship broke, and fighting the ocean now is doing him no favours. He could barely fight off Skull like this much less Colonnello, but he still hasn't given up. "One more time," he demands. "I know he's alive."

"Then let him find us," Lal urges. "You can't keep this up, you don't even know where he is."

"One more time," Reborn repeats, asking now. "Just once."

Colonnello lets out a sharp breath and presses his forehead against Reborn's. "Jesus, you're going to kill yourself," he mutters. "Last time, you suicidal moron."

Reborn slips under the waves and dives straight down into the darkness. The world becomes muffled and faint the further he swims. He's body is so tired and it aches everywhere but when has Reborn let that stop him before?

Besides, Lal is wrong on one point. Reborn knows exactly where Fon is. In fact the man is right where Reborn abandoned him, most likely still sinking into the ocean because Skull had a dislocated shoulder and Verde's leg is still bleeding and Byakuran is concussed and- and … and…

And Reborn made a mistake.

And Reborn picked them over Fon because in the heat of the moment he thought the man would be fine.

And Reborn should have gone after Fon because the rest were close enough to the surface and the main priority should have been the man  _tied to a fucking_   _sinking ship_.

He swims harder even though his lungs are burning and he can't see a damn thing. If he has to swim into the Mariana Trench, fine, he's still going to find Fon. If that asshole thinks he can get away from Reborn, he's got a surprise waiting.

Maybe it's a little bit of injured pride talking because everyone on that ship is automatically Reborn's responsibility ( _and he let Fon sink, he ignored the man_ ) but he honestly does want Fon to be safe. And Fon will be safe because Reborn has everything under control. The sea is unpredictable and hardly like winding up people to watch them go but Reborn is calm and he will fix this.

Reborn jerks to a sudden stop as he catches sight of a blur in the darkness, charging towards him. What, is he going to have to fight off a shark now? Can his day possibly get any worse, seriously?

The faint smudge in the water turns into a pale white and red. Not blood, no. As it gets closer he can make out two separate figures and he hopes to whatever god listening that one is Fon. He would even accept the man riding majestically on a dolphin and he swears he'll only make one mermaid joke.

Reborn backpedals out of the way because whatever it is goes way too fast for him to logically think stopping it is a good idea. Unfortunately, it curves straight for him.

He braces for the hit, and maybe something with sharp teeth. One entity separates, shooting off course at a high speed despite the water that should be slowing it down, and the second red figure hurtles straight at Reborn.

He catches sight of Fon's shocked expression before the man collides with him. Reborn can't stop the explosion of breath that leaves him. He clamps his mouth shut, down to barely anything left in his lungs, and grabs Fon tighter before swimming up to the surface.

For someone who's been under for around fifteen minutes Fon certainly doesn't look out of breath. Nor does he seem to be completely exhausted like Reborn is considering Fon practically drags them both up.

They break the surface and pant for air, clinging to each other's clothes so they don't get separated as they scan the rough waves to try and find something to grab onto. A wave almost pulls them under again before Fon jerks him to the side and they swim for the floating door with a broken off corner.

Reborn adjusts his grip on the wood and looks up to find Fon staring at him.

Their mad laughter almost drowns out the thunder clap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reborn has the kind of arrogance where he thinks he can step in and immediately take control over everything (it's technically true). So when he intervenes but nothing is going right, he goes into overprotective mode and thinks that he's at fault for why it's not working properly because he should have already fixed it.
> 
> I don't know why I like hurting him.


	4. Chapter 4

In the thrashing waves, an isolated piece of broken wood floats, four figures gripping it tightly as ocean spray cuts into their skin when the waves aren't smothering them.

Mukuro doesn't let go of Daemon's hand for a second because he's not risking the man getting lost in the storm. Byakuran looks like he's one strong wave away from just going under and Skull is curled protectively over his arm. Reborn had popped it back into place when he checked everyone else for injuries right after the ship sunk but it must still hurt.

For a very long time it's just the four of them and while they try to find the others -well, Skull tries because the circus performer is adamant that the rest survived- no one is seen for a very long time. By some miracle they actually get slammed together in the storm, first Verde, Lal and Colonnello and then Fon with Reborn.

They use any rope they can find to lash the broken wood pieces together because if someone drifts too far in this storm they won't be found again. They spend the night clinging desperately and taking wave after wave crashing down onto their heads.

The sky clears in time to show a picturesque sunrise with a vibrant rainbow stretching over the horizon.

Everyone is too tired to give a shit about scenery.

It's not hot in the water despite the sun bearing down on them, in fact quite a few seem to be shivering, still cold from the night before. Their so called 'raft' is a large piece of the deck with two ropes connecting a broken door and another curved part of the ship's hull.

At this point they've discarded any dead weight, which means shoes and jackets, the clothes piled up on the rafts. However, some still carry weaponry. Mukuro can see the two army lieutenant-generals, Lal and Colonnello, are still armed with swords and daggers at their belt, along with maybe Reborn hiding a gun although it would be useless with wet powder.

Byakuran looks like too much of a spoilt noble to lug around weaponry, although so is Mukuro and Daemon and yet the two brothers each carry a small dagger at their ankles. Fon, by the information Mukuro has gathered on him, doesn't need a weapon. On the other hand, Skull and Verde just aren't the type.

Around a few hours past mid-day the ocean has calmed to soft curves instead of anything resembling waves. Reborn is finally able to take care of the smaller injuries the rest have accumulated before turning his medical expertise on himself, which sparks a rather loud argument that only stops when the man is forced onto the largest wooden piece.

"You're an asshole," Colonnello grumbles, floating on his back with one hand holding onto the hull.

Reborn, laid out on his back on top of the largest portion, says nothing. Lal is watching him like a hawk from her spot near his hip to make sure he stays on the raft and doesn't move at all.

"When did you know?" Colonnello continues in annoyance. "Wait, of course you knew from the start, you're a fucking doctor."

Reborn sighs and throws an arm across his eyes to block out the sun. "I found him, didn't I?"

Fon gives a half-hearted wave, flopped over the door on his stomach because Reborn needs to watch him for secondary drowning.

"Yeah, and I'm glad," Colonnello snaps. "But you couldn't have mentioned a  _broken foot_?"

"Shut up already," Byakuran huffs in irritation, grimacing at the noise because _yes, Reborn is absolutely certain the noble does in fact have a concussion, get up on the damn wood Byakuran_. "What are you, his mother?" He shifts around on the hull piece next to Verde, being careful to not bump the bandaged thigh of the scientist.

"No, I'm his friend. Which is why I'm so concerned." Colonnello scowls.

Reborn struggles not to roll his eyes. "It's already done, so save your energy and shut up."

"It's not done because you're going to do something ridiculous like that again." Colonnello looks to Lal for back up but she seems to be ignoring him.

Silence descends for a few moments and Mukuro just floats there on his back, a rope from the hull loosely tied to his belt and his arm linked with his brother's. He glances over and has to pinch Daemon because the man seems to be going to sleep.

He ignores the glare and instead worries about Chrome. The ship is due in port about five days from now so she shouldn't be concerned just yet, although being in the smuggling business means you always need to be wary.

Admittedly their family is made up of nobles and they really could have anything they wanted, so playing smuggler when they get bored isn't exactly necessary. Mukuro barely remembers how it started in the first place, but right now Mukuro and Daemon take the sea routes while Chrome and Fran run the land business.

Thanks to that sudden storm Mukuro is going to need another ship which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't also lose the precious cargo. Well, not exactly precious, but belonging to pirates so Mukuro is also going to have to dodge them when they come to collect.

"Oh my god," Skull blurts out with a bark of laughter. He was on his back with a piece of rope loosely wound around his wrist to keep him anchored to the deck piece but soon flips upright and stares off into the distance.

Mukuro glances up and a heartbeat later everyone is dissolving into amusement. Reborn lifts his arm away from his face and lets his head loll sideways. He freezes and then tries to push himself up. Lal immediately plants a hand on his chest and shoves him down again even as she snickers quietly.

"Is that my hat?" Reborn says slowly.

A small dot of black bobs up and down with every wave, slowly washing closer from the current. It's a black fedora with a band of orange.

"It's like a chronic disease," Verde chuckles. "You'll never escape it."

"Do you think it'll float into his hand if we leave it?" Fon wonders with a smile.

The hat suddenly flies up and the arc of its fall carries it straight to Reborn. He snatches it out of the air and they all stare at the magic hat dripping water down Reborn's arm.

"What the actual fuck just happened?" Lal demands, pushing away from Reborn warily until she's a few meters away and has to start treading water because she wasn't holding onto the wood anymore.

The rest follow her lead and even Reborn looks like he's going to throw the hat away from him for a brief second. He looks to the spot where it was thrown and narrows his eyes as something flickers under the water.

"It didn't jump, you idiots," Mukuro speaks up, holding onto the raft now after untying the rope at his belt, evidently seeing the same thing as Reborn.

"Well I'm assuming a fish didn't throw it either," Byakuran mutters, cautiously looking down into the water.

"It might be Kyouya," Fon murmurs. He shrugs at the looks they give him and explains. "It's not really his name, it's just the first thing he said –or sung I suppose- to me. I've probably butchered the pronunciation so badly."

"Okay," Skull says with an understanding tone. "I understood none of that."

Fon swims out towards the point and waves a dismissive hand at them when they try to pull him back. "I just want to check something."

Before anyone can mention what a bad idea that sounds like, he disappears into the ocean.


	5. Chapter 5

The newly named Kyouya watches from under the waves as these humans kick their legs and flail their arms about. It doesn't seem like a very good way of swimming, but then these are land creatures after all.

He kind of wants to fight at least one of them, just to see what they can do, but the humans are too brittle to play with so roughly. The red might be strong but it still can't do anything in the water. He must be gentle until he can ascertain whether the humans would be able to handle him.

Kyouya's human pushes away from the rest and dives under, looking around until he finds the glint of scales. He gestures for Kyouya to go closer.

Well alright.

* * *

Fon pops up again and smiles at them. The smile promptly disappears as he's dragged under.

"Great, now he's being eaten," Verde deadpans.

He gets no reply as Lal and Colonnello dive under, which ends up being useless as Fon pops up again right next to the raft, along with his shirtless identical twin.

Lal breaks the surface with a gasp and a polite query. " _Is that a fucking tail!?_ "

Colonnello appears beside her, staring with wide eyes. "Uh, okay, Fon are you aware that you have a mermaid doppelganger? Because if you are then I really think you should have mentioned him at some point."

"Wait, what about a tail?" Byakuran wonders, pushing up on the raft and making it wobble from the shift in weight. "And how the hell did he get here, in the middle of the ocean? Where's his ship?"

"There's a black fish tail," Lal says with a gesture at the new man. "Fon has apparently made friends with a mermaid."

Verde scoffs. "I highly doubt it, Lal. It's probably the water making your vision distorted and-"

The stranger promptly grabs onto the door piece and hauls himself up, revealing pale skin and scales like a night sky that form a sleek, very dangerous looking tail. The end flips out of the water, showing the tapered end with a translucent crescent like in all of the stories, before splashing back under.

The mermaid gracefully lies down on his stomach on the door and folds his arms to rest his chin on. Mukuro blinks, half a meter from the intently staring mermaid. The creature suddenly yawns, showing a mouthful of fangs.

Everyone just takes a moment to assimilate the new information.

"So, about this mass hallucination," Daemon begins, cautiously tugging Mukuro closer to him and away from the creature. "When do you think it will end?"

"Can't say," Reborn shrugs casually, head tipped to the side to examine the hallucination, his hat resting on his chest. "It's different for every case, although more worrying is the cause. This probably means we're either dehydrated or starving."

"I'm pretty thirsty," Skull volunteers.

"It's real," Fon tries. "He saved me during the storm. Reborn, don't you remember? He threw me at you."

The mermaid flicks up his tail and splashes again.

"Hallucinations are tactile as well, they effect all senses," Reborn explains. "You probably just imagined him and I really couldn't say what I saw during the storm considering the darkness."

"So are we ignoring him?" Colonnello asks.

"You could interact with him, I suppose, it really wouldn't help or hurt either way," Reborn shrugs. "Just remember that he's not real and you should be fine."

Fon throws his arms up and lets them splash down into the water. "No, seriously, I'm pretty sure Kyouya is real."

"Fon, you spent close to twenty minutes underwater," Verde points out. "Your Kyouya doesn't even look real, he's far too…"

"Beautiful?" Mukuro offers.

"I was going to say far too stereotypical," Verde finishes. "Because why would a real life mermaid look exactly like how humans depict one?"

"Because maybe humans have actually seen one?" Skull suggests.

"Don't encourage Fon," Lal berates. "We don't want him getting sad when the mermaid leaves."

Fon's sigh is full of exasperation. The mermaid rises to his elbows and glances over his shoulder at the martial artist before lying down again.

* * *

They spend the rest of the day watching the hallucination swim around them, occasionally darting up to one of the humans and patting them like he was studying the person. Kyouya seems to have taken a liking to Daemon's and Mukuro's hair but he always returned to Fon, dragging the man around for a swim before putting him back like the martial artist was a toy.

Only when the mermaid is stretched out on the door again does the question finally come up.

"I have to ask," Byakuran begins, in the water now with one forearm planted on the door and his other hand tracing the stripes of scales on Kyouya's back. "Are you sure that he's a hallucination?"

Reborn doesn't say anything for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He reaches up to push his fedora off his face and onto his chest again so he could see. "I'm hoping Kyouya is a hallucination, because if he's a delusion then it's a lot more dangerous for us considering the logic centre of the brain needs to be damaged."

"What's the difference between the two?" Skull asks, getting worried now.

"It's different for every case," Reborn lectures. "But in general, delusions are beliefs that can't be rejected by the patient, like whole heartedly believing a loved one is an imposter. While hallucinations are sensations caused by the mind, like hearing voices."

"Or maybe," Fon tries. "Kyouya is actually real."

"See that could be an option," Reborn offers up sarcastically. "If only mermaids were real."

"But there are lots of stories about them," Verde hedges.

Reborn looks to the scientist with betrayal. "Not you too. Come on, Verde, the concept of mermaids doesn't even make sense. The biology just wouldn't work for a hybrid."

"We don't know that," the green haired man contests. "Not until I get a better look at him, because right now obviously just mashing together human and fish wouldn't work. The inside could be incredibly different from either human or sea creature."

Reborn looks at Kyouya in consideration and the mermaid stares back.

"No," Fon interrupts before anyone can speak. "No one is cutting up Kyouya."

"Not even a little?" Verde mumbles.

" _Not at all_ ," Fon states.

Mukuro and Daemon share a look. "So is he real or not?" the older brother asks.

"Can't say," Reborn sighs. "There's no way to disprove any theory because I don't have the equipment and Fon won't let Verde dissect his twin."

Byakuran hums and picks at a slightly lifted scale near Kyouya's mid-back, a dark blue with green speckles in the sunlight. It rises a little more and as Byakuran keeps working on it, eventually a new scale underneath shows.

Verde is hesitant to get into the water because of his leg injury but sits up on the raft, watching the white haired noble until finally the scale is fully dislodged. Byakuran smirks in victory and passes it along to the scientist.

Verde takes it and rolls it over in his palm. "This isn't going to do much regarding proving anything but it's incredibly fascinating nonetheless."

Byakuran pats the scientist on the arm. "I'll let you borrow it."

Lal drifts closer with Skull, Mukuro not far behind. Fon immediately cuts them off, hovering around the mermaid.

"We won't be hurting him," Daemon coaxes.

"It's like cutting off someone's hair just because it's a pretty colour," Fon says with a frown.

Kyouya pushes off the door and disappears into the water. They wait for him to emerge again but even after ten minutes he stays away.

"Now you've scared him off," Colonnello teases.


	6. Chapter 6

Kyouya has so many humans now.

He doesn't even know what to do with them because he has no idea what humans even do. They're squishy but hard and rough but soft and Kyouya is so confused. They have hair like him but the colours are weird and their eyes are so odd compared to fish he's seen.

They have no scales either. Even under those coverings which can be shed  _and then put back on_. Why would you put back them back on? Is it because they haven't grown new shells yet?

They also make funny noises, like they ate something bad and were trying to cough it out again. Kyouya thinks they might be speaking, just in really short and sharp bursts. Maybe later he'll teach them to speak his language. They don't seem particularly intelligent but they're still smarter than his last pets so maybe they can pick up a few words.

Kyouya thought keeping one human was difficult before but now it seems that his first has learned to behave by not dying. It also helps that they stay so close together and they don't mind Kyouya petting them.

In fact they like petting Kyouya as well. The white one in particular likes his scales. Kyouya glances over his shoulder at the human who was picking at a loose scale on his back. Wao, how did the human know that itched?

The green one comes closer and the humans cough at each other some more.

They're so unlike his last orca, although she was a lot easier because all she wanted was food. Kyouya blinks in shock, thinking back, but he doesn't remember any of the humans eating. Maybe they don't need to yet, or they eat in some strange way like sucking in air through their hands or something.

Kyouya then remembers that humans can't go underwater for very long, and when they're on the water's surface they're always in the wooden vessels. His silly humans can't hunt properly, can they?

He slides off the wooden platform and darts below the waves, swimming for the vague sound of fish. How could he not remember that humans don't go underwater? He really needs to start remembering these things if he's caring for so many of them.

Although, since he has so many, it doesn't really matter if he kills a few.

He pauses with a school of fish faint in the distance. Do humans eat fish? He runs his hand through his hair in frustration. Well he can't ask so he's going to have to get a variety, isn't he?

Kyouya's sigh forms a current that swirls in front of him for a brief moment before fading under the much stronger current of the ocean's sighs.

Kyouya takes off again.

* * *

Mukuro and Daemon sit cross-legged either side of Reborn in order to keep the balance. Mukuro taps Daemon's hand with two fingers up and Daemon tucks the hand behind him now that it's dead. He uses his turn to tap both hands together and the three fingers on one hand creates three more on the other, the brothers using house-rules for Chopsticks.

"You suck at this game," Colonnello deadpans to Daemon as Mukuro kills his hand yet again.

The process of doubling repeats and Daemon just smirks as Mukuro's shoulders tense. It takes six more repeats for Mukuro throw up his hands with a wordless scream of frustration.

"Stop already!" Mukuro snaps. "Just take the loss, damn it!"

"But I haven't lost yet," Daemon hums.

"Yes you have!" Mukuro snarls. "If you tapped my hand, I'd win in five moves!"

"Calm down, little brother," Daemon chuckles. "It's just a game. Now come on, let's keep going."

It takes three more repeats for Mukuro to tackle his brother off the raft and try to drown him. Colonnello and Skull quickly stabilise Reborn's raft so he doesn't tip into the water and use his broken foot.

"You know," Reborn tries. "It's really more of a twisted ankle than anything."

Lal jabs a finger at him from her seat on the hull piece and he quietens down.

Verde slumped over the door on his back, Byakuran floating idly beside him, and Fon floating on the other side, are all murmuring quietly at each other as they play Last Letter-First Letter.

Colonnello gets Mukuro and Daemon separated and climbs up onto Reborn's raft with Skull.

"What game?" Skull asks, trying to think of his usual games when the circus was sluggish. Unfortunately pretty much all of them involved fire.

Colonnello snatches out his knife from his belt and place his hand palm down on Reborn's abdomen. "Let's play Stabscotch," he says with a grin and raises the knife.

"Let's not," Skull says quickly, glancing down at the current table which is made of flesh.

"No, don't worry," Colonnello reassures calmly, bored enough that he wants to mess with Skull. "I won't hit my fingers, I'm really good at this."

"He is," Reborn says with a nod, joining in on the joke. "Just watch."

"Boys," Lal calls out. "How about we don't stab our doctor, okay? Because he costs more than both of you put together, plus our little nobles."

"Hey, I'm first son to the Gesso line," the white haired man pipes up. "I'm worth upwards of fifty million."

"And Reborn is the world's best doctor," Mukuro hums. "He's worth twice that. Or at least he used to be before he slept with the queen and was chased onto a smuggling ship."

Reborn chuckles. "Is that what people are saying?"

"I was wondering about that rumour," Colonnello admits, his knife tucked away already. "She's not the prettiest queen we've had, so I doubt you went after her."

"Of course not," Reborn hums. "I was caught with the king, actually."

Lal shakes her head as Reborn and Colonnello fist bump.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kyouya is learning responsibility. Kind of.


	7. Chapter 7

Skull wakes up to whale song, a haunting tune that makes him shiver, a deeper sensation than just from the cold of the ocean spray. He opens his eyes and finds the ocean being reflected off the sky, the entire world black with a scattering of stars being the only light and the waves lapping at the rafts being the only sound.

There's no wind but the wood is soaked and so is Skull. Even the jacket he put on again and the two bodies on either side can't stop the cold from burrowing into him. He can vaguely remember a lookout schedule being set up before they all climbed onto the rafts, dressed as warm as they could, and crashed.

He lifts his head and looks around. Mukuro and Daemon are on the door, squished together on the piece of wood that can barely hold one person. The door is submerged entirely from the weight, only able to take a breath when the waves recced the slightest bit.

On Skull's hull piece, Fon is close to falling off the edge on one side and Byakuran takes up almost half the raft on the other. They're the driest since the hull curves gently and keeps them above the water despite the three of them pressing it down.

Skull turns to find the other raft and stills when he finds a shadow looming above the people there. It shifts and locks onto Skull immediately. For a terrifying moment Skull can see slit pupils like a demon glowing down at him from the shadow.

Then Reborn rolls his eyes in the light of the stars and Skull relaxes. Right up until he remembers that Reborn took the first shift as lookout, which means he's been up the entire night. Skull is in the middle of trying to determine how he can tell Reborn to sleep without being loud and waking the rest, but the same song that woke him up rises from the sea.

"Is that whale song?" Verde murmurs tiredly, shifting and not so accidentally elbowing Colonnello off him and onto Lal.

"Sounds like Kyouya," Fon replies easily, not sounding sleepy at all as he shifts back as much as can onto the raft.

"It doesn't matter," Reborn dismisses, a hard edge to his tone. "Wake the rest. _Now_."

Skull jolts up and quickly shakes Byakuran awake while Fon reaches over and taps on Daemon's shoulder. When the first strike hits they're all sitting up and braced for it.

The water suddenly heaves up, only a few meters from their rafts, and a massive fin breaks the surface, slamming down again moments later and drenching them in water. The wave shoves them back violently and Mukuro almost falls into the water if not for Daemon grabbing him.

They cling tightly to the raft as they're pushed into a sudden mass of panicking fish, the silver bodies leaping out of the water in effort to get away, churning the water into a frothy mess. They aren't exactly small goldfish either, most of them two meter monstrosities that look like they weight both Verde, Reborn and Colonnello combined.

Lal blocks one from hitting her and winces when her arm jars badly at the large weight and momentum the fish built up. She likens it to fighting a particularly large idiot and the next fish to come close gets her foot in its face.

One charges straight into the door and the two brothers go overboard. When they don't come back up, Colonnello jumps for the bobbing piece of wood and slips into the ocean.

Another lands directly at Skull's feet and makes the raft lurch abruptly, flipping the three of them into the water. They scramble to get out but something with teeth catches Byakuran's jacket and drags the noble deeper.

Fon shoves Skull to the surface but hesitates to dive into the rush of fish that stream past, barely any space between the bodies. He retreats when the school of fish grows bigger, the different kinds mixing in a desperate attempt to blend and get away, forcing a vicious current that makes it hard to swim.

Skull barely spares a glance when Fon emerges, too frantic in trying to flip the hull piece again. Since it's curved, it takes water quickly and it'll sink if he can't get it rightened. He scrambles up and stands at the very edge, leaning forward as the piece flips so he can grab the opposite end and haul it over. He goes under again and pops up to find the raft stable.

Fon climbs up the hull and stands, trying to find Byakuran since he can't go anywhere below the water. A glance of white has him leaping off the wood and swimming for it. Lal curses and crouches low to keep her balance, drawing her sword and clutching a dagger in her free hand as she defends Verde and Reborn, both males looking rather curious instead of anything remotely close to being worried.

* * *

What are they doing?

Kyouya stares up at the buffet he collected and wonders if he's doing something wrong. Maybe his humans are just… defective. Injured in some way, or sick.

Or perhaps humans don't hunt at all - but then how are they supposed to survive? Are there creatures on land that Kyouya doesn't know about, feeding these humans, keeping the humans for food or entertainment?

Kyouya face palms hard enough that it makes him slowly rotate backwards in the water. What, is he going to have to feed them by hand? If they require pre-mastication he quits. There will be no mouth to mouth feeding, he is adamant on that. He is no penguin.

Maybe he can get new ones. It shouldn't be that hard to sink one of those wooden vessels. Kyouya purses his lips and debates just keeping the one that looks like him and letting the rest fend for themselves. That thought feels off, since there's no way they'll survive without him. The poor things can't help being weak.

A shadow darts below and he glances down in curiosity to find a shark charging him, drawn by the huge amount of fish still streaming past overhead. He huffs in annoyance and slaps it across the face with his tail, his spikes digging deep gouges into the flesh of the shark.

It twists in on itself and tries to retreat but Kyouya follows. He'll release some stress first and then find… easier prey for his mentally challenged humans.

* * *

"Um," Byakuran begins, lying on his stomach with his head pillowed on his bunched up shirt, next to Reborn so the doctor can examine the shallow teeth marks on the noble's back. "There's a shark corpse over there."

Fon sighs, half sprawled over Verde and simply trying to regain his energy from the rather odd situation. It's getting harder to build up the energy to do anything considering the shipwreck panic, all accumulated injuries, no food or water, and now a fish attack. "I already apologised for that, Byakuran. I didn't know you wanted to keep it."

"No, I mean there's another one," Byakuran says, pointing off into the black waters to a gleam of flesh visible in the starlight, on the other side of the rafts from the first corpse.

"It must run in the family," Verde mutters sarcastically.

"You don't know that was Kyouya," Fon denies. "He's too sweet and caring for that."

"Okay first of all," Daemon pipes up. "You're not actually related. At least I hope you're not because that would be weird."

"And secondly, you met him yesterday and therefore cannot possibly have any inkling as to what his personality type is," Mukuro continues his brother's argument. "Although I will admit that the injury looks like another shark took a bite out of it."


	8. Chapter 8

It's noon and boiling hot. No one is okay with this and most are trying to stay fully submerged in the cool water.

Reborn has his hat covering his face and a soaked jacket spread over him to keep him cool since Lal still won't let him in the water. Not that it's necessary for him to stay out, but everyone seems to have selective memory loss when Reborn tries to convince them that nothing will go wrong.

He's the doctor here, he's already splinted the break with wood and torn cloth, yet no one listens. At least Verde is suffering with him since the academic shouldn't stay too long in the definitely not sterile ocean water with his leg injury. The others have cuts as well but not large enough to be a concern.

They all just kind of float around in silence, tired and bored with that irritating thirst always at the back of their throats.

A small splash sounds and breaks the monotony as Fon flips upright from his back float, grabbing onto the door piece where Verde is lying so he doesn't have to tread water. "Ah, Kyouya," Fon says in greeting. "Where did you head off to?"

They all glance over to where the mermaid floats, only his eyes and above visible in the water. He floats closer and suddenly hurls a torn net piece at Verde who is sprawled on the door.

The scientist jerks in shock as the small net hits him and the fish and one octopus inside start flopping around since they're out of the water. Some of the oysters spill out of the netting and clatter onto the wooden door while the coral just sits there looking sad.

"…So is he real-"

" _Get them off me_ ," Verde grits out, unwilling to shove the food into the water.

Daemon and Mukuro back away from the mess while Lal just rolls her eyes as she and Fon move the netting to the hull raft. Reborn shoves the damp jacket off him and shifts his hat onto his chest so he could see. Despite Reborn's stare, Verde slips into the water to wash off anything that got on him and then crowds around the netting with everyone else.

"Thanks, Kyouya," Mukuro says, glancing to the still mostly submerged mermaid.

The creature floats closer and pats Mukuro's hair puff, still spikey despite the water weighing it down some.

"No, seriously, is he real?" Byakuran asks. "I just need this to be cleared up."

"To be completely honest, I don't actually care anymore," Reborn volunteers. "If he isn't, well there's nothing I can do right now anyway. If he is… we just found a mermaid."

Everyone takes a moment to stare at Kyouya, rolling over that thought in their heads. They each feel like something should happen now, or that they should do something, but in the end it's all very anticlimactic.

Besides; food.

Skull says something but it's mostly muffed by the red octopus clinging to his face. Daemon debates helping the circus performer but he doesn't seem to be distressed in anyway so the smuggler leaves it as is.

Kyouya bobs over to Reborn and places a seahorse on his hat. The poor thing wriggles pathetically.

"Thank you, Kyouya, but I don't eat seahorse," Reborn says and picks up the animal, dropping it into the water. "In fact we can't eat anything since we don't have fire. We probably won't die but God forbid if one of you get Vibrio or a damn parasite."

The rest stare at him with wide eyes, only receiving his eye roll in answer.

"I can make fire," Skull offers up, lifting his arm to show a rope bracelet with a strange buckle. "I have flint."

"But we don't have dry fuel," grumbles Colonnello.

"Risk versus reward," Daemon shrugs. "How hungry are we? Can we afford to wait and become weaker? Chances of dying? Are we going to snap and kill each other?"

"Eighty-six percent," Verde mutters.

"Which question are you answering?" Fon wonders.

"…Yes."

"Fuck it, I'm going for it," Colonnello blurts out, grabbing an oyster and unsheathing his knife. One quick stab and it falls open.

"Nice pearl," Byakuran hums and smirks when Colonnello obligingly passes it over.

They all watch the lieutenant-general eat it and his face gives away nothing. "Good news, it's not actually that salty."

"Should we even bother with the fish?" Verde mutters, staring at a dull grey eye of one that was flopping closer to him in effort to get into the water. "Cleaning the meat and looking for parasites and gross."

"You're all so prissy," Lal sighs.

Verde inches away when her knife slams straight through the brain of the fish he was staring at. "Alright, you can have that, I'll stick with oysters."

"Is anyone going to eat the octopus?" Fon wonders idly.

They look to Skull and his new sea creature hat. The man looks horrified and places a hand on a tentacle hanging down from his head. "No, you can't eat Oodako," he says in shock.

"You're not keeping that thing, are you?" Daemon asks.

"What, Fon gets a mermaid and I can't have an octopus?" Skull huffs. "Don't be racist."

* * *

Kyouya dips underwater when the human drops the seahorse and bobs back up again with the creature curled in his hand. He watches in fascination as they cough at each other before he looks to the only human lying on the wood.

It looks back. Kyouya offers up the seahorse again. It shakes its head. Kyouya shakes his head back. It coughs. Kyouya tells it to eat because it's obviously the weakest in the school of humans.

They all stare at him.

What bothersome creatures these humans are.

* * *

A beautiful tune washes over them, the wordless song rising high before coasting down again and fading on the barely-there wind.

They turn to face Kyouya who is holding the seahorse out to Reborn again. The man sits up slowly and carefully enough that Lal doesn't go after him, and then takes the seahorse. He places his hat on his head and adjusts it.

"Seahorse," Reborn carefully enunciates, pointing at the creature.

Kyouya responds with a shorter hum and taps his lips with a long, delicate looking finger.

"Eat," Reborn corrects, using the same gesture and then points back to the slowly drying out sea food. "Seahorse."

Kyouya makes that short hum again but this time he points as well and adds a two tone 'ah' that went low and then high.

"Are you teaching him to speak?" Colonnello asks in interest.

"There's nothing better to do," Verde mutters cynically.

Reborn just watches Kyouya motion to eat again. "Actually, he seems to want me to speak  _his_  language."

Mukuro hums.

Kyouya's head snaps to him and the mermaid hums for longer like he was slowing down the word. Mukuro hums back and the mermaid lights up, darting forwards to pat him on the head.

The noble smirks and looks at the rest, particularly smug when he glances at Fon. "He likes me best."

"Ikesh meh," Kyouya murmurs quietly.

Mukuro laughs. "Li-ke-s me."

"Likes me."

Mukuro grins and pats the mermaid on the head.

Meanwhile, Reborn has once again dropped the poor seahorse into the water. "He wants to trade. One word each."

Kyouya hums what they assume to be 'eat' at the doctor and Lal tosses an oyster at Reborn.

* * *

"Shut up," Kyouya tells the human on the wood and the other human responds with a projectile oyster.

They are learning well.


	9. Chapter 9

"What is this made of?" Colonello cries out in anger, digging his nails into the rope around Fon's ankle harder and trying to pull it apart with brute strength. His feet kick in the water and he wriggles his top half onto the raft to get a better angle.

Fon shrugs, lying next to Lal and Reborn on the deck raft, his own fingers sore from trying to unknot the rope before Colonello wanted a try. "I think now is the time you should give up and just use one of your blades."

Colonello scowls but stops prying at it and lets an arm fall into the water, unsheathing the dagger at his hip instead. Everyone glances over when the blade screeches against something metallic as it struggles into the rope.

"Oh," Verde says.

"Oh?" Mukuro echoes, pausing in his attempt to juggle oyster shells. Not because Daemon is better, or anything ridiculous like that. The shells clack onto the hull raft, forgotten. "Do you know what that rope is?"

Fon sits up and peers down at his ankle while Colonello groans dramatically and sinks under the water. The rope is frayed and torn but where the blade cut in Fon can see a glint of metal. The rope is woven with a steel core.

No wonder Fon couldn't rip it apart back when he was drowning.

"What did you need it for?" Lal asks Verde.

Reborn looks interested too as he reaches into the ocean and hauls up Colonello - who is very convincing at playing dead. Skull loses interest once the mystery of the rope's origin is solved and goes back to teaching the three nobles how to juggle.

"It's a tester," Verde explains. "I'm trying to make something that will survive full scale combat but still be relatively light."

"Well it survived," Fon mutters.

It's just his wonderful luck that he got tangled up in it during the storm. When Kyouya cut through it to save him, the mermaid sliced up the attached rope, not the piece around his ankle. It's not irritating him, but he's pretty sure he shouldn't leave it on regardless. He tries to untie it again, but after picking at it for an hour and making no headway, he gives up. 

In the meantime, Reborn summons his will power and sits up. "Gather around, ladies and gentleman. Let's have a look at those bumps and bruises."

"But you just looked at my back last night," Byakuran protests, throwing his oysters down and flopping sideways into the water.

Reborn waits patiently for the noble to surface, and then states, "Do you know how quickly an infection can spread? Do you know where that shark's teeth have been? Do you know how fast you can swim?"

"I got it," Byakuran grumbles and then blinks, backtracking. "Wait, why am I swimming?"

"Because I can guarantee I'm faster," Reborn finishes calmly, a dark edge to his voice.

Lal reaches over and pats Reborn on the leg. "Don't mind him," she tells Byakuran. "He's going into withdrawal." To Reborn she says, "As soon as we get to land, I'll buy you an Espresso, so just focus on the pretty scenery."

Reborn gives her a look of pure malice. "I hope you have an infection," he wishes.

Surprisingly enough, no one has an infection and it all seems to be healing well. Reborn is a lot more satisfied than he pretends. He does spend a bit more time with Verde's leg considering the gash is both deep and on the outside of the academic's leg, running from his upper thigh down to just above the knee.

Reborn actually sowed it up before the boat sank, a really rushed job, and despite knowing that was the only option, Reborn is still regretting not taking more care. The last time he checked, there seemed to be a bluish portion along the suture line, around the middle of the gash and only small. Now, there seems to be a few blister-like structures in dark red.

Reborn points at the discolouration and briefly glances up to make sure Verde is looking. "This part needs to be watched, okay? If it looks like there's wound separation or it turns black, tell me immediately."

Verde frowns but nods anyway. "Is it serious?"

"No," Reborn says quickly, because Verde tends to overthink things. "Just a small issue."

"How small?" Colonello chimes in, clearly eavesdropping along with the rest of them because there is nothing else to do in the middle of the ocean.

"Is he going to die?" Skull gasps, clutching Oodako close to his chest in only half-feigned horror.

Reborn pauses and rewords his previous statement. "I can only react with the small amount of equipment I have, so it's best to be cautious."

"What is it?" Mukuro asks in morbid curiosity.

Reborn considers it for a moment but decides that ignorance would be worse. "It looks like the early stages of necrosis."

"Sounds horrific," Byakuran says happily.

"It's not," Reborn says with finality. "I have dealt with far worse, with far less equipment."

"Lie," Fon states. "Your clients only want the best care and the fanciest machines."

Reborn slants a glare at the other man. "Fon, just go play with your mermaid, okay?"

Fon smiles peacefully and slips into the water, ducking under the largest raft where Kyouya is teasing the tiny fish that have gathered for shelter. The seahorse from before is wrapped around a lock of the mermaid's hair, wiggling its tiny fins as it's dragged around.

Reborn turns back to Verde, who looks wary. "It's insultingly easy to get rid of, so stop worrying. My talent is being wasted on all of you."

Surprisingly, the egotistical half-insult actually calms the scientist down more than when Reborn was trying to be gentle.


	10. Chapter 10

Kyouya sways with the light current, hovering just under the largest piece of wood. The seahorse in his hair wiggles its tiny fins and tightens its grip to not get washed away. Kyouya has more company in the form of small fish that are taking shelter under the raft.

They dart around his head and wriggle away from his fingers, but he's fast enough to poke them. A stripped tan and black one jolts when Kyouya pokes its nose and it veers off course, shaking its tail frantically to get back to its previous position.

The humans above shift and cough at each other, disturbing the calm silence of the ocean, but Kyouya is getting used to their clumsy movements and general inadequacies.

It's not really their fault, their weird two-tails don't work properly. Kyouya has tried to teach them how to swim by dragging them around but they still flail oddly. It does seem to be working for them, though, so Kyouya is just going to leave it as is.

Kyouya's eyes follow the fish around him and he keeps as still as he can, flowing with the water to stay hidden from the less intense senses. He makes sure to have his jaw as wide as possible though an ache is starting to form.

One of the smaller fish darts close and Kyouya patiently waits for it to enter his mouth.

Unfortunately, the human with Kyouya's face splashes down suddenly and the tiny fish zig-zags away from Kyouya's sharp teeth that snap closed just a second late. Kyouya frowns at the fish and then at the red human.

* * *

Fon pops up again just as Verde moves away from Reborn, the examination over.

"I think Kyouya might be hungry," Fon says. "Or just very bored. He trying to eat the fish down here."

Kyouya emerges right beside Fon, the seahorse still clinging and looking rather pathetic hanging upside down on Kyouya's head.

* * *

"I'm going to call it Dino," Kyouya says, reaching up to pull the seahorse out of his hair and letting it rest in his cupped hand, submerged underwater. He points at it and repeats, "Dino."

The red one butchers the pronunciation and Kyouya has to repeat the word several times. The red human then points at himself and makes a noise like he's going to sneeze but doesn't.

Kyouya isn't sure if it's supposed to be a word or just an odd noise but repeats it anyway. "Fon."

The 'Fon' lights up and the rest of the humans go around and bark at him. It's pretty cute because they think their language is important enough to learn. Kyouya humours them because they look so excited when he copies their noises.

"Death will come."

Kyouya jolts and whips around to face the white haired one who seems to be gesturing at Kyouya. He narrows his eyes, wondering if the human is issuing a challenge.

A suicidal action considering how much stronger and faster Kyouya is, but then again Kyouya has learnt these humans aren't the most intelligent creatures he's come across.

"No," Kyouya murmurs, dropping the seahorse and drifting through the water until he's floating beside the raft where the 'Byakuran' is. "No, little human, death is already here." He plants his hands and pushes up until he hovers centimetres away from the human. "I'm right in front of you."

* * *

"I think he likes you, Byakuran," Colonnello says, watching the stare down with amusement.

"I don't know," Mukuro hums. "It kind of looks like Kyouya wants to eat him."

"What does he eat?" Skull asks no one in particular.

Kyouya flashes teeth at Byakuran and then sinks below the waves ominously.

"I bet he eats humans and he's just waiting for us to die," Daemon says wickedly. "Pure carnivore material."

Verde pushes up his glasses and frowns contemplatively. "Going off a human system, or even most fish, he should be an omnivore. If he's mostly akin to a dolphin then meat, but a whale's physiology is still a possibility."

"So in other words," Reborn begins. "There's no way to tell unless-"

"No cutting," Fon says loudly. "Honestly, how many times do I need to tell you both?"

Verde holds up his hands. "Can't help it, it's instinctual. Like right now I'm calculating statistics for my death."

Reborn throws a glare in Verde's direction. "You want statistics? Fine. I'm seventy-three percent sure you won't get blood poisoning, ninety-seven percent sure I won't have to amputate anything, and one-hundred percent sure you won't die even if you also somehow develop pneumonia. Stop bitching."

The sky takes that as cue to open up and start trying to kill them all with the heaviest rain any of them have ever seen. There's no need to panic about another storm since they can all see bright blue sky in the east, upwind, lighting the edges of the dark clouds overhead.

"Now look what you've done," Lal complains jokingly. "Damn it, Reborn."

Everyone else joins in with dramatic groans and whining, all of it directed at Reborn, who just rolls his eyes and tips his hat off his head, prepared to catch the rain.

They debate over getting a boot to fill but no one wants to use a shoe that's been on someone's foot, despite it being days since anyone last wore shoes. They mostly just tip their heads back and drink like that.

* * *

Kyouya gets a few meters at a lazy swim before he remembers dropping his Dino-horse. He quickly turns down and starts propelling himself, using his specially adapted eyes to search the black waters around him.

Damn it, this always happens when he leaves his pets alone.


	11. Chapter 11

Kyouya searches for Dino through the blackness, but he has to swim in large circles to cover more ground because the current would push the small sea creature instead of letting it drop straight down. He goes slowly, searching carefully.

Dino can't have gone that far.

* * *

They exhaust their entire repertoire of things to do and eventually regress until they play a painfully long game of I Spy, somehow finding ridiculously creative ways to have the answer be 'the ocean'. It just keeps going until finally Lal puts an end to it by announcing that she has a sword and is perfectly willing to use it.

They all glance over to the pile of clothes, shoes and weapons that sit on the deck raft, stacked up to give Reborn a pillow. One long sword pokes out from underneath, but the second is clearly in Lal's grasp.

"You're still carrying that on you?" Byakuran asks in bemusement. "What are you going to need a sword in easy reach for?"

Lal raises an eyebrow and starts making a list, raising a finger for each one. "Sudden fish stampede, sharks, as weight training, habit, to stab any of you if necessary, to stab any of you if I get bored, to-"

"I get it," Byakuran interrupts with an eyeroll. "You're a badass soldier, yay."

Lal narrows her eyes. "Bitch, I'm a Lieutenant-General-"

"Used to be," Colonnello pitches in quickly. "We're kind of not in the army anymore."

Lal simmers but does calm down a bit.

"Did you sleep with someone as well?" Mukuro smirks and Daemon snickers.

"I don't know why everyone says it like a bad thing," Reborn huffs with a fake frown.

"We didn't sleep with anyone," Colonnello chuckles. He shrugs carelessly but the humour is gone now. "We got labelled as spies and they tried to kill us. Kind of ridiculous considering how much of our lives we've given the army, but that's just what happened."

Skull winces a bit and then holds out Oodako. "Do you want to hug him? It comforts me…"

"I want water," Lal grumbles. "I'm so freaking thirsty."

Reborn grabs his hat, still half full (or half empty, depending on your view point) with rain water from the night before, and holds it out to Lal. The material is damp and a lot of the water has leaked out because it's hardly a proper container, but it's cool and a relief from the thirst.

Daemon takes the hat after Lal has a drink. "Reborn, I take back every time I've called it stupid."

"…And when, exactly, have you insulted my hat?"

Daemon scans the doctor and then makes a decision, beginning with; "Clearly, this masterpiece of a hat is just so far above my level that I cannot fully comprehend its magnificence. I deeply apologise for my previous statement and I hope we can get past this error of mine."

Reborn raises an eyebrow. "Maybe next time you should do that without the condescending undertone."

"It's built in," Daemon explains seriously. "I honestly don't know how to turn it off."

* * *

Kyouya finally reaches the bottom and looks around the ocean floor, scanning for his fallen seahorse, but it's no use.

Kyouya has officially lost his tiny Dino.

* * *

"Where do you think Kyouya is?" Fon murmurs, lying on his stomach next to Mukuro and peering into the dark water. "He's been gone for three days."

Mukuro rolls over and joins the martial artist in staring at the ocean. "He's probably terrorising the other mermaids."

"Got bored and found other people," Skull chimes in.

"Got bored and is now  _eating_  other people," Reborn corrects the circus performer.

"I don't know why you're worrying about a mermaid and not about dying," Verde argues. "Kyouya is perfectly fine in the ocean. We, on the other hand, are almost out of food and water and will probably kill ourselves if we play another round of I Spy."

"He's right," Daemon sighs. "I really hope a ship comes past soon; I just want to be dry for once."

"You should worry about what kind of ship," Lal lectures.

"Pirate would be nice," Reborn suggests. "Merchant might avoid us and Navy… well, we were on a smuggling ship for a reason."

"No, no," Byakuran berates. "Don't lump me in with you guys, I'm just avoiding paperwork while I still can."

"We would get off with a lecture from our parents," Daemon says, Mukuro nodding in the background.

"I wouldn't get in trouble since I haven't done anything," Skull proclaims happily. "This ship was just going to the port I needed."

"Lal and I were framed," Colonnello volunteers.

"Seconded," Fon admits.

Verde looks away from them all.

"Wow, mister  _rebel_ ," Reborn teases with a wicked smirk. "I guess we're the only two who actually committed a crime."

"I hardly became a serial killer," Verde grumbles. "I just met with some pirates, and I highly doubt any of us here can say they haven't."

_(Not that anyone knows, but strangely enough… Verde is the only one not lying.)_

* * *

Kyouya knows his seahorse is gone but he still searches on the way up so it takes an incredibly long time. He finally reaches the ocean's surface and pops his head out of the water in the approximate area that he left from.

His humans are nowhere to be found.

Kyouya sighs heavily and debates on just giving up because this is taking more effort than what he thinks is strictly necessary. He could continue his nomadic lifestyle until he finds another ship and then he can sink that…

But it wouldn't be the same, would it? He's starting to like them, so it would be a shame if he just let them leave. The creature ducks under again and starts swimming with the current.

They can't have gone  _that_  far.


	12. Chapter 12

They begin to get morose and wonder how long they'll be here for. They're in the middle of the ocean, at least ten days by ship in any direction from land as much as anyone can remember, and it's through rougher water and untraveled routes specifically because it's a smuggling ship and if they used the normal ways the navy would come down on them.

They all know the chances for survival. They're all logical people, they don't need a flimsy thing like hope to get them out of situations. They would be dead by now if they relied on such things.

They all know struggle and demanding work but nothing in their arsenal can defeat exhaustion and combat the weathers and keep them from dehydration.

Kyouya distracted them enough that these facts could be pushed to the back of their minds, and they honestly did try to keep their thoughts sharp and emotions lifted by playing games and laughing off the little detail of being stranded and liable to die a slow, exhausting death.

Ignoring it isn't going to work anymore, but there's nothing that can be done. So they float in freezing waters and contemplate their mortality.

* * *

"It's getting worse," Reborn murmurs.

Verde tenses, the muscles of his leg jumping under Reborn's hands.

"I have to cut it out," Reborn says, echoing Verde's own predictions. "I don't have the proper equipment to deal with it in any other way."

"Leave it alone," Verde decides.

"I can't," Reborn replies. "You'll lose your leg, and that's if you're lucky."

"I'd rather be a cripple than a corpse," Verde snaps. "I have a higher chance of dying if you cut away the necrosis. You'll just open the wound more and it'll get infected as well as the flesh dying."

"Verde," Colonnello cuts in. "It'll be fine. Trust me."

And Verde, because he knows that the words are empty reassurances with no facts to back them up, decides that a chat is necessary. A quiet part of him says that he's lashing out because he's scared, but that makes him angrier and suddenly all of the genius he holds sharpens to a point.

"Trust you?" Verde scoffs. "How about you tell me why you're here and then I'll chose whether to let Reborn hack off my flesh or not."

"We told you-" Lal begins but Verde cuts her off.

"That's a lie, because you would have immediately hunted down whoever framed you and cleared your name." Verde shakes his head. "This supposed blacklisting was planned."

Lal and Colonnello scowl at him and try to speak but the scientist continues.

Verde narrows his eyes. "No, you're here for a reason, and it can't just be any old undercover mission for the army. You would have used a navy ship or bribed a merchant which would have been quicker. You're here for someone on the smuggling ship."

Reborn shifts on the raft beside Verde and the scientist latches onto the motion, turning to face a blank Reborn who was avoiding looking at anyone. The doctor's hands are both pressed flat against the wood, a quirk of his when he wanted to reach for his gun but was restraining himself.

"Oh," Verde hums. "It's Reborn you're after, but he didn't know about you, not until I pointed it out." Verde lets out a cruel laugh. "How didn't I see this before? He could have slept with the king and queen and worked his way through the whole  _kingdom_ and still would have been more valuable alive than dead."

"Verde," Fon begins calmly but firmly. "I think you should stop now."

"But it's just getting interesting," Verde replies. "Because obviously they're here to protect him, which means that all their blatant affection and worry is for the sake of the mission."

"That's a fucking lie!" Colonnello bursts out, moving to Verde but stops when Lal grabs his arm in restraint.

"None of us have seen each other in  _seven years_ ," Verde snaps back. "I understand Reborn being desperate to protect everyone because he's disgustingly prideful in his work, but you expect me to believe you care about him enough to hold him back from finding Fon? Enough to force him onto a raft?"

"We're all tired," Skull says in barely a whisper, shrinking back. "We can't start this now."

The three nobles are dead silent, watching in worry because they don't want a fight to break out. If the group starts fracturing then actually living through this becomes a lot less likely.

Reborn very calmly slips off the raft.

Verde smirks, victorious because Reborn can see the lies as well. He can see that Lal and Colonnello were lying about keeping the doctor safe just for Reborn's sake. Affection is the quickest way to make Reborn stay docile and convince him to let the two bodyguards stay with him.

It certainly worked for Luce; after all, Reborn hadn't seen her betrayal coming.

"Reborn," Lal tries, moving towards the doctor. "It's not fake. If we cared more about the mission than you, we wouldn't have let you dive for Fon at all, and you're up on the raft because you're injured – just like Verde isn't in the water."

"Move," Reborn says politely.

"Born," Colonnello murmurs gently.

Reborn's head snaps to them and his eyes are dark. "Move, now. It's not a request."

Lal and Colonnello back away as Reborn reaches for the door piece with his jacket lying on top. He moves calmly, without a care despite being watched closely by everyone. Reborn searches through the hidden pockets of his suit jacket and comes away with a case, the sword and snake symbol on the lid claiming it as medical gear.

"Why do you need that?" Verde demands.

Reborn swims back to Verde before pulling himself up on the raft again. Verde tries to shift away when Reborn reaches for his leg but a simple look from the doctor makes him freeze.

Reborn scans the wound again and opens the case, evidently waterproof, to show a frightening array of instruments in shiny silver. "You know," he hums. "I don't know what's more offensive: that you think I can be distracted so easily, or that you think I can't manage something so simple without killing you."

Verde flinches when Reborn violently rips open the sealed packaging of a scalpel.


	13. Chapter 13

The surgery went smoothly, and the patient is now deep asleep on the largest raft, his leg cleaned of dead skin and then sealed over with a specialised gel. Bandages are more likely to be harmful in this environment since they'd become instantly soaked, but the wound can't be exposed to the sun and water for too long either.

The gel is quick drying, even with the cap on the tube, so Reborn takes the chance to clean and seal everyone else's cuts. Most have small issues, so the gel is already set and they're able to escape into the water and away from the hot sun.

Byakuran is the only other one who needs to stay on the raft next to Verde, lying on his stomach with his arms as a pillow so the gel can settle into the teeth marks on his back and shoulders.

There's a heavy tension in the air, the silence almost stifling.

Lal and Colonnello kept talking to Reborn at the start, insisting that they did genuinely think of him as a close friend, and they took the job specifically because it was  _Reborn_  they were going to protect. Reborn didn't listen - changed the subject when anyone brought it up, or asked them to stop if they kept going on, and eventually they did fall silent.

Reborn is honestly not trying to be difficult here. He's being perfectly amiable, no snide comments or passive aggressive body language. He knows that they have to spend countless more days together so he's really not trying start trouble - he just doesn't want to talk about it.

It's not the first time someone he trusted has pretended to care for him. Not the first time he's fallen for it, either.

He rolls onto his side on the door raft and closes his eyes. He wants to stop thinking.

* * *

When Kyouya (finally) finds his humans, it appears they've resorted to cannibalism. The green one has a huge chunk of his leg missing and the white one has teeth marks all over.

Kyouya rolls his eyes and dumps an armful of food onto the wooden piece. Most immediately gather around and start cracking open the oysters eagerly. Kyouya frowns. Maybe he isn't feeding them enough.

The two half eaten ones move slower, the green obviously just waking up, but they both grab the food and dig in. The only one that doesn't move is the weakest one.

Kyouya snatches an oyster from the pile and swims over to the black one, dropping it close to the human's head. The human (Unborn? Reborn?) brushes it off and into the water. Kyouya scowls and grabs it before it sinks too far.

Kyouya opens it himself and pinches the soft insides before holding it up to Reborn's mouth. The human sits up and shakes his head. Kyouya nods his head and sighs in annoyance. Is this really going to happen every time the human needs to eat?

Kyouya is honestly trying to keep these humans alive. Especially this silly little one, who will probably get eaten by the rest of them if he becomes any weaker than this.

Maybe it's not Kyouya's fault – maybe this one is really sick? But the others have always gotten better. The green smelled of rot for a very long time (thought that seems to have cleared up) and the two purples kept leaking from the nose at the start, plus the blue spontaneously started bleeding for days but no one seemed remotely distressed when it happened.

Perhaps it's not sickness, just… the other could be a different breed of human? Humans aren't meant to be in water for so long in the first place. The others can tolerate the ocean, but if land is in the blood then Kyouya needs to do something more to help this weak one.

Kyouya finally stops trying to hand feed Reborn and disappears into the water instead.

* * *

Daemon is holding onto the edge of the largest raft, the closest one to the knot, so it's obvious when the rope becomes slacker than it should be. Eventually, the rope strung between the main raft and the door completely vanishes into the water.

Daemon uses the wood to pulls himself closer. He grabs the rope underwater and runs his hand along it, coming to an abrupt stop a couple centimetres down. He pulls it out of the ocean and stares at the cleanly cut edge. "Um, I think we may have a slight problem."

The rest glance over just in time to see the cut off piece of rope get flung over Reborn's torso, the end landing back in the water. The doctor starts to push it off, but the rope goes taut so he gets shoved onto his back and pinned down. That is never a good sign.

"Reborn?" Skull calls out in worry.

Lal grabs the handle of her sword and Colonnello quickly follows suit. Fon and Mukuro start swimming for the door. The raft jerks and Reborn mutters a curse at the jolt. Then it starts drifting away.

"No you don't," Byakuran mutters, quickly searching through the pile of clothes on the hull to find one of his knives. He can hit a coin with his eyes closed. He just has to cut the rope around Reborn.

The water hisses as it gets split apart at a high speed and before Byakuran can even look up, the door is gone, taking Reborn with it.

* * *

Reborn hears faint screams of his name, but even that fades between one breath and the next. The raft is moving so fast, the wind throwing his hair into his eyes. He yanks at the rope around him but it's tight – there's no way he can wriggle out of it.

He abandons that idea and instead goes for the holster on his hip. The gun is a custom model, created just for him, and it's never suffered water damage before so he's not surprised when it fires smoothly.

The bullet cuts into the water just in front of the door and the raft jerks to the side, spinning with the momentum built up but not being dragged any more. Reborn fires another shot into the rope beside him and tosses it off when it splits.

He rolls onto his knees and comes to a halt when he looks up.

A surge of relief floods into him when he sees an island, maybe only half a kilometre away, lush green and tall trees bordered by white sand. It looks like the first thing you think of when the word 'island resort' is said.

His body slumps, relaxing unconsciously, but he shakes off the tiredness and looks around. He can't find anyone. Behind him is nothing – just ocean for as far as he can see.

A shadow darts under the water and he focuses back on the threat.

* * *

Kyouya clutches at his bleeding side, the wound already half closed from his fast healing. His face is starting to hurt from the wide grin stretched across razor sharp teeth. It seems like he has underestimated this 'weak' little human.

Oh, how wonderful.


	14. Chapter 14

Reborn takes another bite of the juicy mango and chews slowly, savouring it.

Beside the doctor, Kyouya stirs again but doesn't fully awaken. It makes sense, considering how many times Reborn slammed the mermaid's head against the rocks.

The view is wonderful, water clear enough to see the vivid corals and small darting fish. Further out, where the water breaks into white foam against gently curved rocks that encircle the island, the water is a deep blue. Past that is nothing, just the very curvature of the earth.

The sand is white, still clinging to Reborn's half dry clothes. It's in his hair, on his hands, and he loves it because it means he's not floating in the ocean on nothing but a piece of wood, always cold, always wet, always absolutely exhausted.

The large rock he's leaning on is warm from the bright sun. He's shed his clothes until only his pants are left, everything else stretched over the rock to dry faster. Reborn shifts and pulls in his legs to cross them lightly, still taking care to not upset his injured foot.

Kyouya slowly sits up next to Reborn.

The doctor offers the mango and the mermaid takes it. Reborn then picks up an opened coconut that was set to the side and sips.

Kyouya stares at the orange thing in confusion and hesitantly licks it.

They both sit there, the only noise being the ocean's waves crashing against the glittering white sand.

* * *

"When that fish fucker gets back here, I'm going to rip off his fucking tail," Lal snarls in rage, whetstone scraping against the blade of her sword.

Not even Fon protests this. He just stays tense, still staring into the horizon where Reborn disappeared. All of them are scattered about the rafts, armed and very pissed off.

It's been more than an hour after Reborn was dragged away, and only now does it start sinking in that maybe the doctor won't be found alive. Reborn is strong, but in the water with a severe injury against a creature who's in their home territory…

It doesn't help that Colonnello disappeared as well. The soldier had grabbed onto the end of the door when Reborn was first taken and got dragged along quite a distance. He must have fallen off sometime after because he flung up one of the emergency flares he and Lal both had, barely seen in the distance.

Lal immediately took off, ordering everyone else to stay together, and swam out to the point. Either Colonnello was still moving when he shot up the flare or he sent the signal to inform them of the direction and then kept following after their doctor.

Regardless, he was gone when she got there. Lal made it back to find the rest in an argument about swimming after the two missing men or staying here and waiting for Kyouya to come back to fight.

The fact is, they don't know where the two have gone. If they rush after them and tire themselves out, it'd be even easier for the mermaid to… eat them or whatever. Not to mention the threat the actual ocean possesses.

All they can do is wait.

* * *

Reborn tries to once again communicate that Kyouya should get the others and bring them to the island.

"No," Reborn sighs. "No, I don't want to fight. I'm a doctor, I've taken the Hippocratic Oath." He's just going to ignore the earlier... altercation.

Kyouya tightens his grip on Reborn's good ankle and starts dragging him towards the water, slowly, like Reborn won't notice if Kyouya does it smoothly enough.

"Stop," Reborn says sternly, reaching out to grab the rock behind him. "Kyouya, no."

Kyouya pauses, blinking innocently. Then keeps pulling him along the sand.

A particularly loud splash attracts their attention to the water, where Colonnello staggers up onto the sand, gasping for breath.

Reborn shakes Kyouya off and rolls to his feet, quickly limping across the beach where he barely manages to grab the soldier before Colonnello's legs give out. They still topple over since Reborn is unbalanced on his feet and end up tangled together on the sand.

Reborn smothers a smile into Colonnello's shoulder. "Did you swim the entire way here, you moron?"

"We didn't finish our conversation," Colonnello gasps out. "Don't try and run, asshole."

"I really don't think you can stop me," Reborn says, patting the blond on the head.

"I have you pinned."

"You're half passed out on top of me."

"Fuck yo-  _is that a fruit salad in a coconut?_ " Colonnello blurts out, just noticing the little set up Reborn has going. "Were you just doing this the entire time?"

"I was hungry," Reborn says defensively. "What, did you want me to swim around trying to find you?"

The soldier rolls off the doctor because he's too upset to cuddle right now. "I expected a little concern, not you setting up a freaking resort. There's a damn palm tree leaf as a beach umbrella."

"Do you not know me?" Reborn scoffs, sitting up. "I wasn't going to curl up into a ball and worry the entire time."

"Just give me a fucking mango, Reborn."

* * *

Kyouya paws at Reborn's leg but the man brushes him off again in favour of the blond human, who glares at Kyouya and pulls Reborn a bit further away from the mermaid.

Kyouya huffs in annoyance.

The good news is that Reborn does actually look better now that he's been transferred out of the water. The  _great_  news is that this human can fight like the monsters of the Deep; all teeth and speed and cunning.

He should check on his identical human, Kyouya decides. If Reborn can fight, then can the others as well? Kyouya would love to find out.


	15. Chapter 15

Reborn and Colonnello wait on the beach for another hour but eventually decide to explore the island. Kyouya probably went back to the others but it's most likely taking a really long time to communicate the fact that there's land.

"I can walk," Reborn complains, batting away Colonnello's hands.

"Uh, no, you really can't," Colonnello argues. "Not without hurting yourself. So either stay here and I'll explore or let me pick you up."

Reborn huffs. "Fine. Drop me and you die."

The soldier ignores the threat though it's definitely not a joke and swings Reborn up in a princess carry before marching off into the trees.

* * *

"We're lost," Colonnello complains.

"No, it's just up ahead," Reborn insists.

* * *

"We are completely lost."

"Up. Ahead."

* * *

"Lost."

"Nello, I swear-"

"Born, I really think I'm better trained than you since I'm Navy-"

Reborn clamps a hand over the blond's mouth. "Do you hear that?"

Colonnello freezes, expecting some kind of wild animal to attack, but in the silence there's the faint sound of water rushing.

"Ha!" Reborn cries. "I told you I knew where the beach was."

Colonnello grumbles as he shifts Reborn around in his arms and continues stomping forward. They break out of the forest cover and blink at the rushing waterfall that drops into a large, clear pool decorated with colourful water plants and exotic fish.

"Ha!" Colonnello crows. "Oh, yeah, the beach, huh? That look like a beach to you, baby Born?"

Reborn slowly turns to face the blond. "I could kill you. Right now. No one would know."

"Yeah?" Colonnello snickers. "You gonna kill me on the  _beach_?"

Reborn opens his mouth but a familiar shriek interrupts him. They both look over to find Skull tumble out of the trees on the other side of the large pool and splash into the water. The others soon follow.

"How long were we walking around?" Colonnello grumbles but his steps are quick and eager as he rounds the water's edge and meets back up with the rest of their group.

Lal shoves past Byakuran and pulls both of them into a tight hug. Fon follows soon after while Skull clambers out of the water before latching on as well. Verde hovers off to the side but stays close enough that he can observe the two for any injuries.

They set Reborn down on a nearby flat boulder, just at the edge of the water. Daemon passes over the hitman's hat, shoes, jacket and medical gear that got left behind when he was dragged away. The rest of the gear they've kept are dropped near him as well before everyone just collapses and enjoys the dry land with the trees shading them.

They've been switching between floating in the ocean and drying off on the rafts, so they're not in the water constantly, but they haven't been dry like this. No clinging to soaked wood, no constant rocking from the waves, no more burning sun.

They chat about what happened when Reborn was taken away, then how Colonnello found him, before ending with how Kyouya just grabbed the rope and everyone clung on as he dragged the remaining two rafts all the way to the island.

The story trails off into silence and they find themselves drifting off with it.

* * *

Skull wakes up to someone poking the bottom of his foot. It's ticklish. He huffs and pulls his leg up to escape.

Someone yelps in fright and splashes loudly. Skull jerks upright, followed swiftly by Reborn and Lal, but no one else is roused from their heavy sleep.

In the clear pool is a meek brunet on the cusp of adulthood with a long hazel tail that blends into honey at the end of the fin. The mermaid squeaks again when he realises the three are staring at him and then dives under the water, retreating across the pool to hide under a fall tree trunk. Except his tail is too long to fit so he's clearly visible.

"Not now," Lal says and flops back down again. "I'll deal with it later." She's snoring again in seconds.

Skull looks to Reborn but the doctor also seems like he's done with mermaids. He rolls over and snuggles back up with Byakuran. Skull looks warily at the water and shuffles away so the mermaid can't reach him anymore then passes back out.

* * *

"Ah, he's stuck," Daemon says. "So cute."

Skull snuffles awake to find the others gathered at the water's edge and cooing at the mermaid. The brunet is hunched up against the tree trunk under the water, staring at them with wide eyes. Mukuro is sneakily circling around to get close enough to try and pet the new mermaid but the brunet spots him and freaks out even more – he even starts to cry.

Fon frowns in the background. He doesn't see the appeal, because Kyouya is much more adorable.

"We're going to have to wait for Kyouya," Lal says. "We should be able to carry him here if he doesn't struggle."

Everyone has unanimously agreed to pretend that the whole kidnapping episode didn't happen because Reborn was being 'rescued' instead of eaten, so this plan is logical.

"The poor thing is going to pass out if we scare him anymore," Daemon murmurs, wiggling his fingers at the brunet.

Fon walks off and returns with Kyouya, carrying the other in an awkward manner over his shoulder just so he doesn't touch the tail. The two make their way over the hill of rocks that separate the beach from this little pool, a wet jacket flung over the mermaid because none of them are sure if he'll get sick if he dries out.

The other mermaid starts calling out in song when he sees Kyouya, swimming over and reaching up. The brunet pauses when he remembers the humans and backs up a little bit, spinning in circles out of distress, trying to figure out what he should do.

"He's an idiot," Reborn chuckles. "How cute." He tilts his head. "I'm going to call him Tuna."

"Why do you get to name him?" Mukuro protests.

"What's your suggestion then?" Reborn asks.

Mukuro opens his mouth, closes it and then sighs. "Tsuna?"

Reborn starts a slow clap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally going to keep Kyouya as the only mermaid but so many of you wanted to see Tsuna so I just had to add him.
> 
> We've also achieved land for everyone, Reborn has fluffy friendship feelings because Colonnello swam after him, and they all now have food and water from all the plants on the island. I promise not to make them suffer for a few more chapters at least.


	16. Chapter 16

Fon crouches beside the water and lowers Kyouya in before backing up. The other mermaid rushes over, expression bright with happiness.

Kyouya abruptly smacks the other with his tail in a brutal attack, the razors along his fin digging in deep. A sound like a banshee shriek escapes the other mermaid and he clutches at his scraped-up arm and chest before ducking back into the tree trunk again.

Fon immediately grabs Kyouya and drags him out of the water, onto the grassy bank where the mermaid's tail cuts gouges into the ground.

Verde hums. "Do they know each other or are mermaids naturally aggressive to their kind?" the scientist wonders, watching everything with curiosity.

"Kyouya isn't aggressive," Fon protests, ignoring how badly the other mermaid is now bleeding, and apparently forgetting how Reborn was kidnapped. Oh, and that one shark. Don't forget the shark.

"I think Fon has developed a brother complex," Daemon jokes.

"You're one to talk," Byakuran fires back, because the first thing Daemon did when Kyouya attacked the other mermaid was to pull Mukuro behind him.

* * *

Kyouya ignores the humans and calls out to the other mermaid. "Come here, don't be an herbivore."

The mermaid whimpers a bit but does emerge, the impressive healing factor meaning the cuts are now gone.

"There was a really big storm," Tsuna sobs. "A huge wave threw me over the rocks and I can't get out."

"Where are your two herbivores?" Kyouya wonders, looking around and up into the trees because those two ridiculous mermaids are often found in the oddest of places.

"We were chasing a cuttlefish and I lost sight of Takeshi and Hayato," Tsuna whimpers.

Kyouya frowns. "You're almost as weak as my humans," he berates.

Except for that one predator with the injured leg. Kyouya slides a glance to that human. Oh, if only it wasn't a land dweller, Kyouya would have so much fun.

"We're not allowed to be around humans," Tsuna says.

"Ask me if I care," Kyouya drawls. "Now stop being difficult and let the humans carry you out."

Tsuna hesitates. "I don't know where I am. If I go out I might be chased by a shark again."

"Would you rather stay in here and starve?" Kyouya replies.

Tsuna shakes his head quickly. "Can I stay with you? Just until I know where I'm going."

"No."

Tsuna made his eyes wide and pleading. "Pleeeeease?"

Kyouya grimaces in disgust but it oddly reminds him of his lost Dino, so he accepts anyway. He holds his arms up to the human who looks like him and the well-trained pet lifts him up and drops him into the pool again.

* * *

Fon watches closely but Kyouya doesn't attack again so he sits down with the others and starts picking at the rope around his ankle. It's starting to really annoy him.

He got tangled up in it right before the boat sank and ended up almost drowning before Kyouya cut it. Fon still has the piece tied into a complicated knot around his ankle, with a little bit trailing from it, and the very end sheared clean off from Kyouya's tail.

Verde glances over. "Just use the scales, Fon. Honestly, it's like you want to make it difficult for yourself."

Fon blinks. Why didn't he think of that?

"Thanks for the warning by the way," Daemon grumbles. "Maybe next time you could offer up a 'hey, avoid the tail if you don't want to be sliced up'."

"I probably should have mentioned that," Fon says apologetically.

He looks around the pool of water and finds a glint of light near the waterfall's base. Fon snatches Reborn's hat off the man's head and flings it like a Frisbee in the direction of the reflecting light.

"Fon," Reborn says patiently, not even opening his eyes from where he's lying on Skull's lap. "If you do that again, you won't even see your death coming."

Fon smiles serenely at Reborn and then focuses back on the water when the fedora bobs back up right next to him. "Thank you, Kyouya," Fon says as he takes the hat and passes it back to Reborn.

Then the martial artist shifts forward until he can drop one leg off the edge.

* * *

Kyouya contemplates the hand gestures from the one that looks like him, unsure if it's just flailing in excitement or if the human is trying to communicate.

The human with the long braid points at Kyouya and then moves one hand in a circle while talking in that strange language. It then points at itself, makes the circle gesture, and half turns around. It faces Kyouya again and he's pretty sure the human wants to spin.

* * *

Fon chuckles when Kyouya grabs his hanging leg and turns the martial artist to the side.

"Almost," Mukuro says encouragingly.

Fon waves Kyouya closer again, knowing that he should probably change tactics since this isn't working. He gently grabs Kyouya's shoulders and manually spins the mermaid until Fon was facing Kyouya's back.

Then the man grabs the mermaid's sides and hauls him up onto the ground again. Kyouya blinks in shock and then glances back over his shoulder to stare at Fon.

Fon slides the rope tied around his ankle against Kyouya's tail and it gets torn to shreds easily.

"Any other fun tips you could pass along?" Lal drawls. "Does he spit acid as well or have a taste for human flesh?"

"No – maybe. But he can breathe oxygen which is why I lasted so long during the storm," Fon offers up.

Verde looks very interested. "Just a little?" he tries.

"No cutting," Fon emphasises. "At all. Ever."


	17. Chapter 17

When the new mermaid gets comfortable enough, he swims up to the edge and they haul him out along with Kyouya to dump them in the ocean. They have no idea what mermaids eat ("Humans," Byakuran chimes in) so keeping them in the pool is probably a bad move.

Kyouya takes off like a shot but apparently that's not a normal speed since the other mermaid tries to follow and quickly gets left behind. The brunet makes his way back to the small island instead and hovers worriedly as the humans stare at him in fascination.

"I'm going to pet it," Byakuran declares and takes off.

* * *

Kyouya glances back over his shoulder to check that he's lost Tsuna and then finally slows to a lazy glide through the water. If he doesn't have to deal with the herbivore then he's not going to.

A piece of wood floats by, later followed by a scrap of white sail.

Oh, Kyouya thinks. More humans. He smirks and blurs through the water, turning left and up closer to the surface where the humans would be floating.

He follows the trail of destruction until he's coasting along the side of a sunken -or perhaps still growing- island, narrow but tall enough to be perhaps twenty tails under the surface of the water. The water is a bit warmer here so Kyouya knows that fire burns below.

The pseudo island is covered in coral and speckled with bright and colourful fish that dart out of Kyouya's way when he passes. A vast majority of the wooden vessel is in pieces and resting along the top of the rocky tower.

Kyouya circles it several times but the only humans he finds are already dead. He swims deeper, passing along the sides. The fire forms strange shapes when it cools, often leaving pockets and complicated tunnels.

Kyouya slows down and listens intently at each hole in the rock. If there was a human inside he should be able to hear them constantly coughing in their silly language.

"…goi…ave…orry…"

Kyouya immediately ducks inside, only hesitating a few moments at each fork in the tunnel. He has to guess a few times and inevitably backtracks a lot, but eventually he emerges into a larger chamber.

"Please, God. Let's just… make a deal, okay?" the human mumbles into its interlaced fingers. Its knees are curled up against its chest, the human sitting on a high shelf, looking sickly and pale.

There are bags and wooden boxes bunched up beside the human and also dumped into the water below. Probably food and water considering it's lasted this long despite the broken vessel outside already being occupied by fish.

The human purses its lips. "I will… believe in you, if you do this for me. I mean I'll try to believe in you. You're kind of… kind of my last hope." The human sighs. "No going to lie, still waiting on Poseidon to answer. I'd take Satan as well, I'm not to fussed."

Kyouya peers around the room. There's only one human here, sunlight for hair and skin a warm tan. Kyouya likes it, it's rather pretty.

"Hell can't possibly be that bad," the human muses. "And having a soul is overrated anyway. I don't even know what a soul does, is it like an appendix? Alright, I will auction my soul to whoever gets here first, okay? I think that's fair."

Kyouya rises from the water, grabs the rock ledge, and hauls himself up until he's sitting beside the human with his tail still half below the water.

The human looks up when it hears the splash and stares at Kyouya in shock with bright golden eyes.

Kyouya leans towards it. "I will call you Dino," he says, in honour of his lost seahorse.

* * *

It's mostly knowledge from the smuggler brothers and the navy soldiers that help them pin point where they are.

They fit together enough maybes and guesses and estimates to finally think that they're somewhere near a normal trade route, drifted by currents and the half-hearted kicking to one direction they did when they were still on the rafts.

They should be able to wave down a ship, if only it comes close enough.

They're prepared with an entire play's worth of charades for when Kyouya gets back the next day, but they quickly get distracted when they notice a blond man is being dragged along behind the mermaid on a piece of wood.

Colonnello and Skull wade into the water and drag the man the last few meters onto the sand where the stranger flops down and rolls in the dry, warm grains.

Yeah, they all know that feeling, so apart from dropping some fruit near him and Reborn doing a quick check, they leave him alone for a while.

He sits up by the time the sun reaches its peak and grins, deliriously happy. "Hey, so my name is Cavallone. Nice to meet you?"

Cavallone was swept up in the same murderous weather when the storm passed on from their misery and targeted Cavallone's ship instead a few days later. He had a small crew since it was supposed to be a two week journey out of nostalgia, mostly spent skipping through a few tiny islands that he visited when he was a child on his father's ship.

In turn, they go through a round of introductions, Cavallone actually recognising Reborn by name. He also vaguely seems to know Byakuran as another heir to a large family fortune.

"Horse racing!" Mukuro cries in realisation. He lost four grand to a shit runner named Enzo, Mukuro is not likely to forget.

"Oooooh," Byakuran drags out. "Okay, I remember your family now."

They give a brief history of how they got here. Glossing over the fact that it was a smuggling ship of course, and only focusing on how they got knocked down in the storm and then Kyouya finding them.

They then explain their latest plan to Cavallone before turning to a bored looking Kyouya who is petting Tsuna's hair like the brunet mermaid is a dog.

Long story short; the charades don't work. It takes a painfully long time to draw something good enough to even resemble a ship and it takes even longer to indicate to Kyouya that they want one.

The mermaid still looks a bit confused but he obligingly disappears under water, hopefully to bring back a ship.

"I hope they don't capture him," Skull says in concern, squishing his octopus to his chest for comfort.

"I hope he doesn't eat everyone and just bring back an empty ship," Daemon muses.

Fon frowns. "Why do you all keep saying that? Kyouya is not a killer."

"Fon," Colonnello sighs.

"Hold on," Verde says. "I think I know what the problem is. Fon, what is your definition of a violent killer?"

Fon considers it. "At least twenty people dead in a messy manner."

Reborn raises an eyebrow. "Why were you on the ship again? 'Framed', was it?"

Fon pastes on a ditzy smile. "Let's get you into the shade, Reborn."

"I'm fine right here," the doctor tries but he can't do much against the man when Fon has mastered a hundred and thirty-four martial arts and Reborn can barely walk.

They all watch Reborn get carried away by someone who is most likely a serial killer. It should be fine, Fon wouldn't hurt the only person who has any medical knowledge.

Right?

Lal stands up. "I'm going to… go into the shade." She strides quickly after Fon.


End file.
